Set up single-player MAME light gun games with a Dolphin Bar, Win 10

RetroArch General
#1

Hi, like a few others, I’m trying to get light gun games set up in RetroArch’s MAME core. I am using a Mayflash Dolphin Bar in mode 2, where Wiimote movements are converted to appear to the PC as a USB mouse. I can move the cursor / use right/left click on the Desktop just fine with the Wiimote. I am using Windows 10, the latest RA and latest MAME core (0.196).

I have got a light gun game (Time Crisis) to work with the PC’s regular mouse (a touchpad on a wireless keyboard) by turning on ‘Enable in-game mouse’ in the MAME core options within RetroArch. I may also have needed to set MAME to use the mouse X / Y axes for the light guns controls (if they weren’t set like this by default; I can’t remember). I can now play Time Crisis with the mouse, but still have the following issues:

  • The right-click button on the touchpad doesn’t seem to be mappable with MAME’s in-game (Tab) menu.

  • The Wiimote isn’t being picked up as a mouse. I don’t know if this relates to the User 1 Mouse Index within RA’s Input User 1 Binds, but I have tried several numbers and none have worked yet.

This seems to be close to working. Could anyone fill in the blanks?

Note: Many posts on using Wiimotes revolve around trying to get multiple light guns to work in MAME. Whilst the appeal is understandable, this is not my aim. I only want to set up a single light gun. I want to keep this simple, and avoid unnecessary complexity e.g. handling multiple mice in Windows etc.

1 Like
#2

Update for anyone else trying this. I solved it by just running a standalone MAME64 for light gun games. Turning on light gun support in there, and setting button 1 and 2 to the relevant wiimote buttons works great.

I was originally using a gun shell that actuated the trigger button of the wiimote (B) with the gun trigger, but this resulted in the tigger returning a right-click with the Mayflash adapter in mode 2 (though not in mode 1). As this proved impossible to remap with AHK with certain emulators (e.g. Model 2), I just bought a shell that uses the nunchuck Z button as trigger, which corresponds to left click. For various reasons, this works out better anyway (e.g. having reload both under the barrel (B) and above the trigger ©).